gardens as social spaces

A lit­tle while back I wrote about the Crit­i­cal Mass pho­tog­ra­phy awards. One of the “Top 50″ pho­tog­ra­phers, Lucas For­est Foglia, had a series based on a com­mu­nity gar­den and the peo­ple who inter­act there.

Left: Lukas For­est Foglia: Savuth Water­ing [ source ]

The Great Amer­i­can Gar­den shares under­tones with the Great Amer­i­can any­thing: com­pe­ti­tion, excess and indi­vid­u­al­ism. Just look at all the bat­tles for the green­est lawn that the Scott’s fer­til­izer peo­ple per­pet­u­ate in their ads that are about to start sat­u­rat­ing the airwaves.

But com­mu­nity gar­dens allow some­thing else to hap­pen. They’re shared spaces and meet­ing places where peo­ple of dif­fer­ing back­grounds and cul­tures interact.

Foglia’s pho­tos look at the var­ied peo­ple who work plots of land in a com­mu­nity gar­den in Prov­i­dence, Rhode Island, and they cel­e­brate the inter­sec­tions that develop there. It’s a nice body of work and def­i­nitely worth a look.

Lessons

Left: Lukas For­est Foglia: Lessons, 2005 [ source ]

May 18 2008 | Categories: art • gardening • photography | Tags: • • | No Comments »